John 5:1-18

Rev. Tom Harris

January 10, 2010

I wonder when the man in this story just gave up? It’s understandable that he would give up. I'm not blaming him for giving up. In fact, in the end, giving up was essential to his healing, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. When did he give up? He was sick for 38 years. We don't know how many of those years he has been sitting by the pool called Beth-zatha.  He could have been by the pool all 38 years or he could have arrived more recently. It does seem like the kind of place you go when you have a almost hopeless chronic illness and have tried healing by every other means. You've been to doctors. You've tried various prescriptions or surgery. You've tried counseling and acupuncture and other alternative treatments. You've even been to a few faith healers. Nothing has worked. You are still suffering from your illness every day. But there is this spring of water you’ve heard of called Beth-zatha and they say if you are the first one in the water after the intermittent bubbles come up from the bottom that you may be healed of your disease. So the man in the story finds himself sitting near the pool hoping he can jump in when the water is stirred. Tragically, the very illness he seeks to heal keeps him from receiving the healing. When the water does bubble up, he is too disabled to get in first. Someone else always gets in ahead of him. I wonder how many people had to push him out of the way or knock him down before he finally just gave up.

Now he is sitting there consumed with self pity probably just waiting to die, when Jesus approaches and says, "Do you want to be made well?" If you've ever dealt with a chronic illness you know how tiring it can be to just explain your situation one more time to a well meaning person. The well intentioned person who is asking about it always thinks they have the solution you haven't tried. "Oh my cousin had that same condition and he just starting taking fish oil and it cleared right up." "Oh I know the best acupuncturist, she helped me with that same problem in just one session." And as these well meaning people offer their advice you patiently explain that you've been to three acupuncturists and you’ve tried fish oil and you mean no offense but you don't think that's the answer. Or you may respond in a less graceful way.

So the man must have looked at Jesus with that kind of tiredness. After 38 years and finally lowering himself to trying to fight to be the first one to swim in this stupid pool of water and not even being able to accomplish that, he must have looked at Jesus in disbelief. "Do you want to be made well? Are you serious? What do you think I've been trying to do for the last 38 years, you Moron?"  But, he does not say that and instead patiently explains again his humiliating situation, "I can't even get in the stupid water. I'm done. I give up."

To that Jesus responds, "Stand up, take your mat, and walk" and at once the man was made well and he began to walk.

What is your chronic condition? Is it something obvious such as debilitating chronic pain or cancer? Is it an addiction to something: food, internet pornography, rage, prescription drugs, spending? Is your chronic condition something so subtle and painful you can't even identify it, but somehow it keeps you from living life to its fullest, from loving yourself and loving your family? It is just below the surface of your awareness, or buried in your past and it has held you back all your life. Whatever it is, we all suffer from something. No matter how healthy an image we project to the world we all have chronic conditions that keeps us from being fully alive. The question is, are we still looking for cures, for treatments, for answers, for magical pools of water or have truly given up. Most of us are still looking.

But there is a healing path laid out for us in the story that suggests the answer may require us to stop looking. The man in the story spent 38 years trying to cure his illness by his own will power, by his own strength, through his own resources, by his own ingenuity. He spent 38 years looking for solutions, cures, treatments, therapies or magical pools of water. And it wasn't until he had admitted that through his own strength he would never find healing that Jesus walked into his life.

When Jesus asks the question, "Do you want to be made well?" we might think the correct answer is, "Yes, Jesus, yes, I want to be made well. That is what I am trying to do." But, that's not what Jesus was looking for from the man and it’s not what he is looking for in us. The answer he found in the man and the answer he wants from us is, "I can't do it. I've tried everything. I give up. Of course, I want to be made well, but Jesus, I can't do it." Only then, when we have given up completely, can the power of God, lift us to our feet and send us on the path of healing. Don’t get me wrong, we should try all the other options. We might find a perfect cure for an illness from a doctor or a therapist or acupuncturist or an alternative treatment. Go for it. But, the deepest healing we all need to be fully alive can only come through the power of God and it will only come when we surrender ourselves to God’s care.

Near the end of the passage, Jesus says something that is not as cryptic as it sounds if we have a little explanation. When he is confronted by the Pharisees about whether he violated the Sabbath by healing on that day he said, "My Father is still working, and I also am working." It says after that "the Jewish leaders were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God."

When Jesus says, "My Father is still working, and I also am working." he is referring to a Jewish theological teaching that was well known to the Pharisees. When trying to decide what work was allowed on the Sabbath, there were a handful of exception for things like saving a life or feeding animals. But, it was also a well known teaching that God had an exception. God continued to work on the Sabbath. God continues to sustain the universe even on the Sabbath. God continues to sustain our lives and the lives of all living things, even on the Sabbath. That is what Jesus was referring to when he said, "My Father is still working.” But, when he says, “and so am I,” the Pharisees make a leap that Jesus probably did not make. They say that he is claiming equality with God by this statement. In fact, I think Jesus is acknowledging not his equality with God but his dependence upon God. Jesus is so dependent upon God that if God works on the Sabbath so does Jesus. As if God is a power plant and Jesus is a lamp. As long as the power is on and the lamp is plugged in and turned on, the lamp is going to provide light. The lamp is not the power plant but if it turned on and plugged in it will not stop working.

So then his story of healing ends with Jesus declaring his total reliance on God as an example for us to follow. Once we have surrendered and admitted we cannot heal ourselves, and we give up trying, only then can we turn our lives over to the care of God and receive that power. Only then can we become totally dependent on God for our decisions and our thoughts and life. Only then does God do for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Today we will be renewing the baptismal covenant as a congregation. The three statements of faith we will say are first a statement of letting go of sin. Another way to say that is we are letting go of our independence from God, we are giving up our efforts to be whole and well without God. Then we share in a common profession that "Jesus is Lord." That we are dependent on God and turn our lives over to God's care. Third, we seek to follow God's will in our lives as disciples, as students of Christ.

The water as it touches us is a symbolic washing away of our efforts at independence. It is a time to begin again a journey of a dependent life with God.

This is not a baptism. No one is getting baptized today. If you have never been baptized it can be for you a little taste of baptism to see how it might feel. Like the free samples at Sam’s Club. If you have been baptized it is a recommitting to the journey with God. Regardless, let it be in you an acknowledgement of God’s power to heal you and make you whole.